Israel. Pesach 2022. Days 9 and 10. Watch for Vomiting and Loss of Consciousness.
Another day, another breakfast.
Our numbers are dwindling at these meals. We have Robyn back, but we’ve lost Avery, Gabs and my dad. My mom met us and we sat outside.
My mother took another Covid test and is still negative and felt fine. We had to do take out for my dad after we were done eating, except they didn’t have take out boxes so we had to take real plates. We also stuffed whatever we couldn’t into paper coffee cups.
We took a walk to Gan Hapaamon (the park across from the hotel). There was a playground and the girls played a bit. Madeleine was chasing around this Asian boy who was 6 years old and spoke English, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese and a little bit of Korean. So an underachiever. Hallie hit her head on the monkey bars (the first of many injuries to come). Madeleine fell inside a tube slide and hurt her lip, so that will look great in the photos were taking on Sunday. After that we walked up to the King David and said hi to Jeremy Dery who is the guest relations manager there; he and I did a David Project thing in Boston when I was in college and I haven’t seen him since, but he actually helped out my parents last month when they were staying at the King David. Very nice to see him.
We walked back to the hotel. Hallie made it most of the way but needed to be carried by the end. Then we had lunch. This lunch was good because it was a little different, kind of more like a yuntev bbq. There were burgers and steaks. I think we’re getting full.
After lunch Tzvi and I had a massage at the hotel spa. We had booked the same time, but we had to be in separate rooms because they’re not doing couples massages since Covid. We had 75-minute massages and they were pretty good. I think both masseuses were Russian women. Tzvi’s was bald. We also hung out a bit in the hammam and sauna which was nice. At the entrance to the area there is a lifeguard behind the desk, I guess he monitors the indoor pool, gym, and sauna area. Anyway, I heard him playing something from his phone and it sounded so familiar. I went to ask him what movie he was watching and he said “The Notebook.” So yes, this 20 year old Arab guy was watching The Notebook. Then we headed back to the girls and found them in the bath. They were still doing great so we went up to the roof for a half hour and sat at the pool reading. Did I mention how happy we are to have Robyn back?
We all dressed for Shabbos and Tzvi took Hallie to the lobby, where we hung out until dinner. Hallie and Tzvi have been pretty entertained by the metal puzzle toys Tzvi got at Gaya. Hallie can’t do them but she likes watching Tzvi do them. Surprisingly Tzvi is actually very good at them and was able to figure out the level 5 very quickly. Cue cockiness.
Dinner was pretty much the same. Nothing special. The food is starting to get old. Everything is still tasting good, but it seems like things are starting to repeat. I mean, how many lamb carving buffets and foie gras stations can you have? At one point the table next to us, which I think was Americans, started singing zmiros very loudly. Then the table on our other side, which were French, started singing Kol Haolam Kulo. The maître d, who is an Arab man, started singing along and cheering them on. That was nice.
If I haven’t said it before, it's a very interesting mix here of Israeli French and Americans. Definitely more Israelis than any other hotel we’ve stayed at here. Probably because Isrotel is an Israeli chain with hotels all over the country, so Israelis are familiar with it.
I think we finally got the kids to bed around 11pm. Seriously, why can’t we do this?
Shabbos morning we got up and went to breakfast. Then we went to the pool and got two day-beds, which was very nice. We hung out at the pool all the way until lunch. They had the really good cauliflower again that we hadn’t seen since first day of yuntev, but who was even hungry at this point? There was some veal that was really dry, probably because it had been served five times already. Madeleine fell asleep at lunch and I managed to transfer her into the crib. Then Tzvi took Hallie up to the pool for forty five minutes while I read in the room.
[Tzvi: Hallie wanted to get one of the ice pops that they have at the pool restaurant, but all they had left was lychee, which I told her she wouldn’t like but she had to have it, and of course she didn’t like it. So we got lemonades instead, which she drank half of and then put her popsicle in it. Then we sat inside at the pool restaurant playing her Jewish foods matching game.].
Tzvi came back and we swapped; Hallie stayed with me and Tzvi went up to the pool. He said he was going for a half hour, but I think it was like an hour, because while he apparently has a secret skill for metal puzzle games, telling time is beyond his abilities.
We took a walk around 5ish and went to a playground near my parents apartment. The kids ended up taking off their shoes which was disgusting, but helped them fit in. We just sat watching them having fun, running around with the barefoot Israeli children… surrounded by flies. Then we moved down to the swings and that’s when things took a turn. The swings weren’t like rubber American swings that bend into your butt – they were flat hard plastic swings that Hallie wasn’t really familiar with, and of course Tzvi decided to push Hallie too high and Hallie, not realizing she needed to hold on tighter than usual, flew right off. While he may be a level 5 at metal puzzles, Tzvi is maybe a level 2 at child safety. We’re pretty sure that Hallie landed on her butt and then fell back and bumped her head (rather than landing and hitting her head first), so that was good. She cried a bit. It seemed like a pretty bad injury at the time, but she was reactive and responsive. I think she was just scared and upset more than anything.
Hallie got pushed home in the stroller and Tzvi carried Madeleine on his shoulders until she wanted to walk, but she was just going too slow so Tzvi made her go back on his shoulders until he realized that she had made a doodie and it was literally coming out the side of her pants. It ended up on his arm and was pretty foul smelling.
I should mention that we made a stop at the free book stand again and picked up a novel for my father because he had finished his book earlier in the day. He’s feeling great and having a wonderful time on in his own in his quarantine. He’s done a ton of reading and is enjoying the food deliveries my mother has been making after every one of our meals.
The kids didn’t really eat dinner – it was basically just a lot of snacks. Shabbos ended and Tzvi and I wanted to go out and get food, but the kids just wouldn’t go to sleep. Madeleine kept crying any time she saw me in the hallways and kept saying “don’t go, don’t go.” At one point we tried to leave and Tzvi actually made it out, but Madeleine saw me and I got stuck. Tzvi ended up waiting in the lobby while I was stuck in the room.
Eventually I made it out and we walked to the First Station to see if there was any food, but there really wasn’t. There was one place that was open, but we didn’t want to eat there, so we just took a picture of Grant eating there and left (though we can’t find the photo now).
We walked down Emek Refaim but it didn’t seem that much was open. We made it all the way to the end where the Waffle Bar used to be – the one we went to after Pesach ended in 2017 – but it’s a real estate office now. So we walked back and got a table at Cafit, which was the only thing open. It was so hot in the restaurant but I saw a bailey’s hot chocolate on the menu and couldn’t resist. It was really good. Tzvi needed a cold drink but their coffee machine wasn’t working yet, so he ended up with fresh squeezed orange juice, which was actually very good. We shared sweet potato pancakes, which were ok. Pasta was the only real chametz they had (it was too soon to have any bread), so I had sweet potato ravioli, which was pretty good, and Tzvi had pappardelle with a tomato cream sauce.
At the table next to us there was an older American couple who sat down after us and ordered, and then never got their food. At one point they told a waiter that if they didn’t get their food in ten minutes they were leaving. Ten minutes later they got up to leave, but then the woman couldn’t find her purse and started freaking out. She was yelling “this is a disgusting place!” It turned out the purse had been accidentally carried off to the kitchen (who knows what was happening there), but these people were just so kvetchy. They kept complaining about how long it was taking to get food. It was literally the only restaurant on the entire street that was open and it was an hour after pesach had ended – like maybe lower your expectations a little bit. Americans.
We were having a very nice time, enjoying our chametz and watching the show of the old people, and then about halfway through the meal Robyn texted us that Hallie had woken up and had a headache. We thought great, now she has a brain bleed. My mom went to check her out and said she seemed ok but was a little nauseous, except I don’t think Hallie even knows what nauseous means – my mother had asked her if she was nauseous and she said yes, so who knows. Anyway, that made me put a call into he pediatrician.
Thankfully by the time we got back Hallie was back to sleep. I spoke to the doctor and she said if anything Hallie probably had a concussion, but watch out for vomiting and inability to wake.
We visited my mother when we got back and brought her pasta from Cafit. She tested again and was still negative. She said she was feeling great, no symptoms. We also visited my father from the balcony and waved down.
Let’s hope we all make it through the night.